give me 9 minutes, I’ll make your thumbnails 81% better — Transcript

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1. 0:00Over the last 5 years, I've reviewed
2. 0:02thousands of thumbnails from hundreds of
3. 0:04creators, ranging from folks who are
4. 0:05just starting out to those who [music]
5. 0:07have been at this for years. And
6. 0:09recently, I've come to realize that 90%
7. 0:11of the time, I give the exact same
8. 0:14feedback. [music]
9. 0:15So, in the next 10 minutes, I want to
10. 0:16walk you through the most common notes I
11. 0:18keep giving. [music] Because if the
12. 0:19creators I work with keeping to hear
13. 0:21them, odds are you'll find [music] them
14. 0:23helpful, too. We'll start with one that
15. 0:26lately I've been giving out more and
16. 0:27more frequently, which is to make your
17. 0:29thumbnail TV friendly. You see, in
18. 0:32recent years, YouTube TV viewership has
19. 0:35exploded. In the US, TV has actually
20. 0:37surpassed mobile as a primary device
21. 0:40people watch YouTube on. To see what
22. 0:42your own TV viewership is, head into
23. 0:44analytics, click audience, and scroll
24. 0:46down to device type. If at least 10% is
25. 0:49coming from TV, this note applies to
26. 0:51[music] you. Because the current TV
27. 0:53interface does something weird to
28. 0:56thumbnails. In both the homepage and
29. 0:58suggested views, only the top portion of
30. 1:00recommended videos are visible. To see
31. 1:02the full title and thumbnail, a viewer
32. 1:04needs to press down on their remote. But
33. 1:06if all the most important elements of
34. 1:08your thumbnail are hidden in the bottom
35. 1:09half of your thumbnail to a huge chunk
36. 1:12of your potential viewers, your
37. 1:13thumbnail looks like nothing at all.
38. 1:15There's no [music] reason to scroll down
39. 1:17to get the full picture. So, to make
40. 1:19sure your TV viewers actually see the
41. 1:21title thumbnail that you worked so hard
42. 1:23to make, run your thumbnail through the
43. 1:2550% [music]
44. 1:25test. If you cover the bottom half of
45. 1:27your thumbnail, is there still enough
46. 1:29visible to prompt someone to press down
47. 1:31on their [music] remote? Is there enough
48. 1:32there to give them a general idea of
49. 1:34what your video is about? If the answer
50. 1:36is no, it can usually be resolved by
51. 1:38either moving your most important stuff
52. 1:40to the top or simply adding text to the
53. 1:42top third of your thumbnail. But merely
54. 1:44making your video's topic obvious isn't
55. 1:46enough. Because if we take the TV view
56. 1:49and compare it alongside other YouTube
57. 1:51interfaces, one pattern makes itself
58. 1:53abundantly clear across the board.
59. 1:56Titles are shrinking in relation to
60. 1:58thumbnails. Just take a look at the old
61. 2:00versus new suggested panel. In the old
62. 2:02version, while we did tend to glance at
63. 2:05thumbnails first, the titles were large
64. 2:07enough to be skimmed at the same time.
65. 2:09Compare that to the new version. The
66. 2:11thumbnails are massive and the title
67. 2:13font size has actually gotten smaller.
68. 2:16As a result, our eyes default to
69. 2:17browsing the thumbnails alone, only
70. 2:19reading a title as an active,
71. 2:21intentional choice. [music] Which leads
72. 2:23to the second note I keep giving over
73. 2:25and over again. Stop relying on your
74. 2:27title to generate interest. Before, as
75. 2:30long as your title was interesting
76. 2:31enough, all you had to do was make your
77. 2:33thumbnail relevant and you'd be fine.
78. 2:35But now, with your thumbnails receiving
79. 2:36a disproportionate amount of attention,
80. 2:39they need to be able to generate
81. 2:40interest all on their own. And the best
82. 2:43way you can do that is by evoking
83. 2:44questions, emotions, or ideally both.
84. 2:47Take this video from men's culture
85. 2:49creator speed. Now, most people would
86. 2:51make the thumbnail by selecting some
87. 2:53relevant imagery of outfits and
88. 2:55accessories and call it a day. But look
89. 2:57at what speed did instead. Taking away
90. 3:00the titles, which thumbnail generates
91. 3:02more interest? The second one. Why?
92. 3:05Well, it prompts us to wonder what are
93. 3:07the five timeless rules and what will
94. 3:09the final outfits look like? Meanwhile,
95. 3:11the editorial font and lighting evokes a
96. 3:13sense of credibility and taste. And
97. 3:16seeing a grown man in his undergarments
98. 3:18creates a subtle feeling of
99. 3:19vulnerability. And while the other
100. 3:21thumbnail does show what the video is
101. 3:22about, when it comes to getting clicks,
102. 3:25questions and emotions trump relevance
103. 3:27every time. So instead of starting your
104. 3:30thumbnail brainstorming process with
105. 3:31what should I show, consider first what
106. 3:33you want your viewer to wonder and to
107. 3:36feel. Those questions and emotions will
108. 3:38serve as a much stronger starting point
109. 3:40to ideulate from, ensuring that every
110. 3:42element you come up with fulfills a
111. 3:44specific psychological purpose. And if
112. 3:46this kind of psychology first
113. 3:48brainstorming doesn't come naturally to
114. 3:49you, that's okay. It's not expected to.
115. 3:52And in fact, that's exactly why the
116. 3:54third note I keep repeating over and
117. 3:56over again is stop starting from
118. 3:58scratch. It continues to boggle my mind
119. 4:01just how often someone will show me
120. 4:02their thumbnail. I'll ask for
121. 4:04inspiration and they won't have any. And
122. 4:07even if they do have references, it's
123. 4:09rare that they actually use them in the
124. 4:11right way. But if there's one skill that
125. 4:13will have by far the biggest impact on
126. 4:15the clickability of your thumbnails,
127. 4:16it's the ability to source and use
128. 4:19inspiration [music]
129. 4:20correctly. So listen up. When it comes
130. 4:22to thumbnail references, the name of the
131. 4:24game is numerous and varied. You're
132. 4:27looking for between 10 to 15 different
133. 4:29references from a variety of different
134. 4:31sources. And there are five sources in
135. 4:33particular that I found yield the best
136. 4:35results. First, there's internal
137. 4:37outliers or past videos of your own that
138. 4:39have overperformed your channel's
139. 4:40average. Could any of those thumbnail
140. 4:42formats apply to your new video concept?
141. 4:45Second, there's external outliers or
142. 4:47relevant videos from other people's
143. 4:48videos that have overperformed their
144. 4:50channel's average. You can hunt for
145. 4:52these manually on YouTube, but I prefer
146. 4:54using an outlier tool like one of 10,
147. 4:56which I'll link in the description.
148. 4:58Third, there is model 3 channels or
149. 5:00channels that make a similar format of
150. 5:02videos to you, but who cover a different
151. 5:04subject matter. Look at their top
152. 5:05performing videos for any thumbnail
153. 5:07formats that might translate to your
154. 5:09video. Fourth, there's bookmarks or
155. 5:11thumbnails that have caught your eye
156. 5:12while browsing YouTube. If you don't
157. 5:14have a system for saving these yet, a
158. 5:16private thumbnail inspo playlist works
159. 5:18great. And finally, there's off-platform
160. 5:20inspiration. Look at billboards, movies,
161. 5:22and TV shows, album covers, even ads
162. 5:25you've been served recently. Frame set
163. 5:27is a great free resource for this as
164. 5:29well, which I'll also link below. As you
165. 5:31gather your references, don't worry too
166. 5:33much about matching your exact video
167. 5:35topic. All you're doing is collecting
168. 5:37different thumbnail approaches. And once
169. 5:39you have these approaches, you can move
170. 5:41on to identifying their underlying
171. 5:43mechanisms. For every reference you've
172. 5:45pulled, ask, "What questions, if any,
173. 5:48does this make me ask? What emotions, if
174. 5:50any, does this make me feel? And most
175. 5:53importantly, how does this reference
176. 5:55make me ask those questions?" or feel
177. 5:56those emotions. For example, when I was
178. 5:59sourcing inspiration for the thumbnail
179. 6:00of the video you're watching right now,
180. 6:02I came across this frame from an intro
181. 6:04of a TV show that I watch. It didn't
182. 6:06prompt any specific questions for me,
183. 6:08but it did evoke a strong feeling.
184. 6:11Something about it felt novel, like
185. 6:12something I had never seen before.
186. 6:14Looking closer and with some help from
187. 6:16Claude, which can [music] be very useful
188. 6:18for this, I realized the mechanism
189. 6:20driving this novelty was the subversion
190. 6:22of expectations. By taking elements that
191. 6:25are traditionally 2D and making them 3D,
192. 6:28applying this mechanism to my own video
193. 6:30concept, I knew that [music] YouTube
194. 6:31thumbnails are traditionally 2D. So,
195. 6:33what if I made one look 3D instead? This
196. 6:36transferal step can be tricky,
197. 6:38especially when your references are
198. 6:39coming from offplatform or from
199. 6:41somewhere outside of your own niche. So,
200. 6:43to help visualize what this could look
201. 6:45like, I used One of 10, who are also
202. 6:47very kindly sponsoring this video. I
203. 6:50gave One of 10 my reference and some
204. 6:52thoughts about how it might apply to my
205. 6:54thumbnail. And because One of 10 can
206. 6:55link directly to your YouTube channel
207. 6:57using your own past videos as a style
208. 6:59reference, it was able to show me a
209. 7:01clear picture of what it could look
210. 7:03like. That picture gave me enough
211. 7:05confidence to move forward with that
212. 7:06thumbnail direction, and it served as
213. 7:08the foundation for one of the thumbnails
214. 7:09we're AB testing on this very video. One
215. 7:12of 10's whole toolkit is incredibly
216. 7:14useful. From the outlier search you saw
217. 7:16earlier to ideiation help, but their
218. 7:18title thumbnail generators are truly the
219. 7:20best of their kind I've ever seen. If
220. 7:23you want to check them out, I have a
221. 7:24special [music] link for you which will
222. 7:26let you try them out for a whole month
223. 7:27for only $1, which I'll put in the video
224. 7:30description below. Thank you. One of 10.
225. 7:32Now, I know that sourcing and using
226. 7:34inspiration like this can be a big
227. 7:36process change. The more you do it, the
228. 7:38faster you'll get. But if you're looking
229. 7:40for something that can improve your
230. 7:41thumbnails right now, I got you. Because
231. 7:44the vast majority of thumbnails I look
232. 7:46at can be dramatically improved with
233. 7:48just three tiny changes. First, remove
234. 7:51clutter. It doesn't matter what
235. 7:53something looks like in real life.
236. 7:54Anything in your thumbnail that isn't
237. 7:56actively working towards you is working
238. 7:59against you. Take this thumbnail kindly
239. 8:01submitted by a viewer. This might be
240. 8:03what the swimming pool actually looks
241. 8:04like, but all of the bars are
242. 8:06distracting for the most important parts
243. 8:08of the thumbnail. Remove them and our
244. 8:10eyes can much more easily focus on what
245. 8:12they're supposed to be looking at.
246. 8:14Second, make your main character
247. 8:16obvious. The main character of your
248. 8:18thumbnail should be the first thing your
249. 8:19viewers take in when they come across
250. 8:21your video. So, to make it easier for
251. 8:22that to happen, make your main character
252. 8:24stand out from everything [music] else
253. 8:26around it. In this case, the Olympic
254. 8:28diver is not obvious. Let's change the
255. 8:31color of her swimsuit and add a text
256. 8:33label. Now we instantly [music] notice
257. 8:35her. And third, AB test your thumbnail
258. 8:38text. This is truly the lowest effort
259. 8:40way you can improve the performance of
260. 8:42your thumbnails. Whenever you add any
261. 8:44kind of thumbnail text, just spend five
262. 8:47extra minutes coming up with different
263. 8:48words or phrases you could [music] use
264. 8:50instead. I know these changes may seem
265. 8:52small, but they're worth doing because
266. 8:54when it comes to thumbnails, even tiny
267. 8:56tweaks can make a huge difference.
268. 8:58[music]
269. 8:59So, if you're working on a thumbnail
270. 9:00right now and have no one else to show
271. 9:02it to, just take these notes from me.
272. 9:04Make it TV friendly, evoke more
273. 9:06questions and or emotions, use more
274. 9:08references, and reduce clutter, make the
275. 9:10main character obvious, and come up with
276. 9:13more text variations. And for more
277. 9:15personalized feedback on your
278. 9:16thumbnails, applications to 90-day
279. 9:18breakthrough are open right now. [music]
280. 9:2090-day Breakthrough is my 12week
281. 9:22hands-on YouTube accelerator program
282. 9:24where you'll work closely with me and my
283. 9:26team to level up your channel through
284. 9:28weekly assignments, personalized
285. 9:30feedback on your videos, live sessions
286. 9:31with comment strategists, and [music]
287. 9:33much, much more. The link to learn more
288. 9:35and apply in the video description
289. 9:36below. The description is also where
290. 9:38you'll find the special link to try one
291. 9:40of 10 for just $1, as well as a cheat
292. 9:42sheet I put together for you to remember
293. 9:44all of the notes covered in this video.
294. 9:46So, check those out below. But
295. 9:48otherwise, thank you so much for
296. 9:49watching. Like and subscribe if you can.